Burke threatens CCC with legal action

Former WA premier Brian Burke could seek compensation of up to $2 million in legal fees following a court ruling that has thrown into doubt dozens of convictions achieved by the state's anti-corruption body.

Burke has been twice jailed and has been criticised over his dealings during the notorious WA Inc period.

He successfully appealed his second stint in jail and had a conviction for stealing $122,000 in ALP campaign donations overturned.

He was convicted and fined $25,000 in 2010 over charges of giving misleading evidence to the Corruption and Crime Commission about an inquiry into a beachside development.

He says he is innocent and attacked the CCC on Wednesday after a Broome police officer successfully argued in the Court of Appeal that it did not have the authority to prosecute him.

CCC commissioner John McKechnie denied there had been a "huge deliberate overreach of power" by the corruption watchdog - he said the evidence stood and he downplayed the prospect of appeals.

However, Mr Burke said that separate from the convictions were many people who it was now revealed were unlawfully charged by the CCC and found not guilty.

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He named friend and former government colleague Norm Marlborough, who he said had a nervous breakdown, and public servants Mike Allen and Mark Brabazon as having never recovered and had their careers wrongfully destroyed by the CCC.

"How can you say to a person who has spent $200,000 defending him or herself against a charge which was unlawfully laid on which after a court case they were acquitted - you want to say that's a technicality," he said.

"The CCC pursued people in ways that were merciless and they were acquitted of charges laid against them and we know today those charges were unlawful," he told reporters.

He said he was seeking advice from his lawyer about taking action in relation to the $1.4 million to $2 million he said he spent on his defence against the CCC's charges.

"The principle is that the charge was unlawful therefore it was not valid and everything that flows from it is invalid," Mr Burke said.

"If you want me to say that I'll sacrifice principle to avoid the problems of a retrial then you've got the wrong man and I won't stop coming because I don't believe I was treated fairly."